Walking at The Edge of The World
by Rhearenee
Summary: Stranded in an unknown world Sakura fights her way back home despite the wonderful company she's stuck with.
1. It's a Wasteland

_Heyoo, so I am back with another crazy idea of mine, that's even crazier than the last. I wrote this as a birthday present to myself. Every year on my birthday I either draw or write something, so this year I chose to write again. Also as a perfect coincidence for MultiSakuMonth MadaSaku fell into my birthday, so I just knew that it was fate or something calling out to me to do something._

 _At first I had no clue what I would do, but lo and behold at the end of May I had the perfect dream, where what you're about to read next happened. It was like a frickin' movie or something. I also tried to write this in a different approach than I usually do, with a bit looser third person perspective, so I'm not sure yet how well that worked out._

* * *

The late afternoon sun cast ghastly shadows on the ground from the immeasurable amounts of debris and pieces of metal and glass. All around there were multiple storey buildings near collapse. Through cracks in the asphalt tumbles of grass were spurting through. The howling of the wind was drowned out by the crunch under their boots. A stench of death prevailed in the ruins.

Sakura scanned her surroundings, paying mind to the shadows, ready for anything that might attack. She reached out with her chakra out of habit, something that even after three years of being stuck in a dimension that possessed no chakra she couldn't break out of.

In the distance heavy, metallic stomping disturbed the silence.

She raised her head in alert, her companion doing the same.

They had found their target.

Sakura picked up speed, Madara following her steps. The ground shook under their feet, the creaking of metal joints cutting through the air. It was a ghastly sound, a sound that once had given her shivers. She wasn't the same scared girl any more.

A red stream of light flashed around the ghastly buildings, searching. The thirteen-meter robot was just around the corner at the next juncture.

Sakura dropped her backpack on the ground, briefly making eye contact with Madara. They didn't exchange words, this being a procedure they've been through multiple times. She tightened her gloves, making sure the clasps were in place.

The Seeker robot had not noticed them, focused on scanning through the carcass like buildings.

This was her moment to run up to it unnoticed. Using one of her chakra powered punches she shattered its leg. The hydraulic pipes and protective metal armour gave away and the robot fell into the building it was scanning, scattering debris and dust across the area. A loud clicking came from the robot which Sakura immediately identified as its machine guns activating.

Madara shifted his weight from one foot to the other, watching Sakura evade the spray of bullets using the debris lying around as jumping platforms. He leisurely held his nodachi by his side, ready to draw it in case she needed any help.

This particular class of robot did not possess a lot of weapons, mostly serving as a scout. Sakura was waiting for the moment it would run out of ammo or for an opening to destroy the guns. Instead, she made two clones of herself, confusing the basic AI of the robot. Its red sensors juggled between the three Sakuras, the machine gun trying to follow the sensors' movements.

Most of the dust had settled or gotten blown away by the wind.

He grimaced when the robot activated its flamethrower, reaching for one of the Sakuras with its claws. Just as the robot was about to crush her, Sakura used a substitution jutsu with a rock, appearing right above the Seeker. The Seeker unleashed the flames and the clones popped with a burst of smoke. Meanwhile, the real Sakura fell down on the robot's dome-like head with a chakra infused punch. The head shattered. Four drones flew out of its body and two more hands extended from its sides, reaching for Sakura.

How unusual, must be one of the upgraded Seeker versions.

Red sensors flashing, the drones locked onto him. With a mechanical whir, they activated their plasma guns.

Madara sighed and placed his other hand on the hilt of his nodachi. He spared a last glance towards Sakura's struggles to avoid the many tiny hands of the Seeker. Its core was exposed, she was close to taking it down.

The drones unleashed fire of blue plasma.

He avoided their shots with a simple shunshin and ran halfway up the nearest building using chakra. The drones kept firing a few seconds too late, always hitting empty space. He propelled from the building and drew his nodachi, slashing two of the closest drones in half.

A loud crunch echoed across the clearing and Sakura flew back, hitting a column of a building, leaving a crater in her wake. Her body lump, she fell out of the hole.

The Seeker righted itself on a single leg. The moment was short-lived for it toppled over. Not dazed at all it continued its momentum, crawling towards Sakura.

He cursed and made quick work of the last two drones.

The huge robot extended its claw right above the unconscious body of Sakura.

Madara drew his nodachi, infusing it with chakra and cut the claw off. It fell on the ground just a few meters from Sakura's feet.

The Seeker was stuck in action. Lack of head and red lights of its sensors made it hard to discern what it was doing.

He didn't dwell on the robots odd actions for too long, advancing towards the robot, scanning it for the best place to cut to put it out of commission for good. Mechanical clicking caught his attention. It was coming from the flamethrower that was aimed towards Sakura.

With a shunshin, he slashed the base of the flamethrower's nozzle. The charge of the gun didn't stop and the weapon exploded. It only took him half a second to slam his hand on the ground and use a doton jutsu to wall in the explosion and protect himself and Sakura from the flames. The ground rumbled from the force of the explosion. He released the jutsu to reveal the already black Seeker to be covered in black burn marks, the stench of burned oil prevailing in the air. At alert, he observed the robot for any other movements as sometimes they could be resilient to extensive damage.

Nothing happened.

He relaxed and sheathed his nodachi. Whatever might have happened could've burned and damaged some of its wires in the explosion.

Jumping on the robot and pulling out a small knife from his boot he unhinged the plate on the robot's head that Sakura had previously tried to remove. Dents from her punches were visible on the metal plate. A mess of wires met him. He wasn't as well versed in technology as Sakura was, most of the scraps in the robot meant nothing to him. Only by watching what Sakura usually took he knew what pieces to scavenge.

Carelessly cutting away the wires he soon found their prize – the motherboard. The CPU was one of the more important parts to get, but when in an environment like this he didn't recognize it. He solved the problem by rashly breaking off the edges where the motherboard was connected and pulled it out, cutting off any wires that might still be connected to it.

Sakura groaned loudly. Her body had begun healing all of her injuries on reflex, still, her back and ribs hurt like hell, and she had a pounding headache. She cradled her head in her hand and opened her eyes.

Madara was by her side immediately.

She held up a hand before he could say anything. "Not. A. Word."

A small smile slipped across his lips and he simply shrugged. "I wasn't planning to say anything." He extended his free hand for her to take and without thinking she accepted it, letting him pull her back to her feet. She wobbled for a second, placing her other hand on him.

Sakura clenched her eyes shut, willing the headache to go away. "After two days living from basically scraps I'm feeling a bit low on juice." The cramps in her stomach were a good testament to that. Travelling across zone Zero hadn't been the wisest choice considering how low her food supplies were.

"I wasn't saying anything," he repeated, the same smile still on his face.

She let go of his hand to scowl at him. "Oh, don't play dumb, I know what you were thinking."

"I wasn't thinking anything, except that maybe you should've let me handle it if you were feeling so bad." He gave her a pointed look.

She scoffed and turned away to search for her backpack. He subtly followed her, finding amusement in her heavy stomping of feet. She quickly located it, thankfully unharmed and slung it back up on her back. "Did you get it?" She expectantly pivoted on her heel to face him again, her previous irritation seemingly vanishing.

He pulled out the motherboard he had stored in his own pack and handed it to her already extended hands.

Her eyes practically sparkled when she understood what she was looking at. "This is really good. It was a new model. See it even has the new generation CPU and socket. Fucking score." With a huge smile, she pointed to a square on the blue board.

"Alright." Not that those metallic squares on plastic were any different from each other to him. He chose a direction back towards the city they've previously had seen in the distance, setting the pace, Sakura following him.

"Oh, man I can already taste the food I'm gonna be able to buy from the dough this is gonna bring in." She had nearly buried her nose in the piece of plastic in her hands. "Ahh, and look it even has a hefty RAM card." She suddenly deflated, her hands falling by her sides. "But I doubt we'll find anyone in the next city who'll want to buy it."

Madara listened to her talk, focusing on the road ahead and scanning their surroundings for any disturbances seeing as Sakura was too distracted with their prize to focus on what was happening around her.

She broke off the excess edges of the board and stuffed it in her already overfilling backpack. "Anyway, did you grab the storage device as well?"

He frowned at the pile of metal that was blocking their way. "I wasn't aware I should've grabbed something more."

Sakura groaned. "You should have. And now we gotta go back and get it." She pivoted on her heel to walk back.

He grabbed onto her upper arm. "We're not turning back." Something wasn't right...

She glared and ripped her hand out of his hold. "Of course you don't care because you don't need to eat or drink, you fucking freak, but I do. That Seeker was a new model, which means that it might have had new software as well and I just know that there would be a couple of people who'd love to get their grabby hands on that programming."

"It's not about that, so shut your mouth. We're being watched," he whispered the last part, turning away from her to look around.

The old carcasses of buildings hadn't changed, the wind was the same, carrying the stench of something rotten underneath the general smell of the dry atmosphere. No sound of robots and the hum of their power cores. She had a hard time understanding what Madara had felt to make him so wary. Then again she was a bit fatigued.

She whipped her head in the direction of incoming noise. Her breath got stuck in her throat, a projectile had been aimed at the back of her head and Madara had caught it between his fingers. She had never seen a dart like that before.

Madara discarded the dart. "Let's keep moving."

Snapping out of her reverie, she followed him. It was times like these when she absolutely hated this dimension and its lack of chakra. Robots could be easily located because of their hum or loud footsteps. People…they were like ghosts. The only way to know was if their killing intent was strong enough. She'd been saved from being injected with an unknown substance only because of Madara's good reflexes. Shameful.

They easily scaled the mountain of metal and debris. A clink reverberated through the empty street. They both turned their heads toward it. Sounds like that followed, clinking all around them. One struck near her foot. Sakura cursed. Darts, whatever it was it was shooting more darts at them. No time to search for the source, so she pushed on. Madara was ahead of her. She picked up her pace to catch up to him. The darts followed her, almost nipping her at her heels.

 _Shit, shit._ No doubt these were hostile scavengers. Fucking leeches.

Madara suddenly tripped, falling on all fours.

She cursed again and used chakra to jump and land near him. If he was getting worse then he'd chosen the absolute worst moment to do it. No time to tend to him. Crap. She slung his arm across her shoulders and used her enhanced strength to lift him up. This wasn't the first time he'd collapsed in the middle of an attack and it surely won't be the last, didn't mean that it wasn't less annoying.

More darts followed her. A couple of them lodged into her backpack or clinked off of the couple plates of armour she had on. Sweat ran down her back from the hot sun overhead and the extra weight she had to carry. The familiar hum of drones reached her ears and Sakura had to resist the urge to growl. Of course, they were drones, what else could make such little noise and shoot so many projectiles at once.

"Tranquillizer darts...they're..." Madara mumbled, losing focus.

Sakura furrowed her brows. _Fuck!_ Did he get hit? So far they have been fast enough to avoid getting hit. In her position, she couldn't tell either.

She scaled down the pile of debris, wary of the protruding pieces of metal. For a moment the wave of darts stopped. She sighed in relief. A sudden prick in her calf brought her back to attention. _What the…?_ She scanned her surroundings. Fast-moving, bug-like shaped drone zipped past her head. _Uh oh…_ She held onto Madara tighter and with a chakra burst leapt off the piece of debris she'd been standing on, landing near the edge of the pile. The edges of her vision were darkening and she stumbled.

 _Hide, need to hide._

Taking the next step was like walking through mud and the weight of Madara suddenly was overbearing. _Shit, shit…_ She blinked, trying to clear her bleary eyes. Her surroundings seemed foggier than before. With what kind of dart did they shoot her with? Her body wasn't able to dissolve the toxin fast enough.

Sakura took another step. Her knee gave out and she fell forward on it, barely managing to hold onto Madara.

The buzzing of the drones closed in. It sounded like a swarm of angry bees.

Two darts hit her in her thigh, eliciting a gasp from her. _Fuck..._ Her strength left her and she fell on the ground, Madara falling almost on top of her.

Her vision swam. She laughed drily. Madara had an obviously new tear in his glove. That idiot tranquillized himself by catching that damn dart that had been meant for her. Fucking fantastic.

Xxx

"Did you see what they did to that robot?"

"Who cares. Look at the stuff this bitch had. That's some serious shit."

"Psh, like this sword, it's shit. Who uses such a big, useless sword?"

"Hehe, the dude is probably compensating for something."

Sakura woke to the sound of laughing and talking. She bit back a groan of pain. Her body had nullified most of the tranquillizer, though the puncture wounds were stinging, making her legs numb. There was sand in her mouth and a few grains even ground between her teeth. Her hands were bound in front of her with a rope. Someone was behind her, holding her upper body upright by her scruff.

"Uh, guys? I think there's something wrong with this one. His hair is turning white."

She froze, tuning in more to the conversation of the scavengers and worrying less about healing herself.

"So? The old man probably just had a bad dye job or something."

Dammit, he was getting worse. She needs to heal him ASAP. The bounds around her hands would be of no problem to get rid of. The scavengers themselves were another thing.

Keeping calm and trying not to spit out the damn sand she focused on the voices of the scavengers, trying to count how many of them were here. So far she'd counted six, but judging from the footsteps there might be three more, plus the drones that still were buzzing overhead. She didn't have a lot of time here and trying to take all of them down might take her too much time. She'll have to improvise. How fun.

Her vision went white for a moment when she opened her eyes. The sun was setting, casting ghastly shadows everywhere. Madara was in a similar position to her, except with rapidly whitening hair. She raised her head a bit to take in her surroundings, but the man that was holding her jostled her.

"You recover faster than normal, huh? Gonna need another dose then." Clothes ruffled as the man searched for something in his pockets.

She inhaled sharply. "Wait! He needs help!"

"Huh? What're you talking about?"

Sakura swallowed. "His hair is turning white because he's dying." Which as odd as it sounded wasn't a lie.

There was a moment of quiet from the man behind her. The man that was holding Madara listened curiously to their conversation. "So?"

Sakura swallowed, accidentally swallowing the sand in her mouth as well. "You can have all that we have just please let me be near him." She hated pleading, especially to some scumbags, but she was running out of time. "Please." She added that extra whine to her voice to make her sound more pathetic. If these men had sedated them just to take their stuff it meant that they weren't some merciless killers and might possibly possess some sympathy.

Both of the men were quiet, exchanging glances with each other.

"Just let her do as she wants, there's not much she can do anyway. I don't want to listen to some whining." One of the men that were shuffling trough her stuff spoke up, possibly the gang's leader.

"Alright." The man that was holding her pulled her up to her feet. "No funny business or you might get a dose that might or might not kill you."

She nodded. For now, she'll play the part of the scared hostage.

He guided her towards Madara who by all means looked like he was unconscious, though she knew better.

Sakura avoided looking at the man behind him, face covered by a ratty scarf. From what she had seen of the scavengers their appearance fit the description that the common residents gave of them – greyish clothes, covered faces and firearms slung across their backs.

She kneeled before Madara and extended her hands. She cursed, she'd forgotten about the bounds. It wasn't really an obstacle to her, but to keep up the visage of her being captive she'll have to keep the rope on. This is going to be a bit tricky, adding to it that she can't show them the green glow of her healing chakra.

Both of the scavenger's eyes were on her, others were too busy sorting through their stuff. She crawled closer to Madara in the process loosening her ties a bit and raised her hands again. It would be ideal if she could place her hands on his chest, where the hole that Zetsu had ripped was, but that would expose her. In the end, she settled to place both of her hands on the side of his face where the glow would be covered by his hair. His head was downturned and his long hair was covering most of his rapidly ageing face. The scavengers thankfully couldn't see any of it. It was things like these that were hard to explain, even in this high tech dimension.

Sakura closed her eyes, tuning out the world and concentrating on the tear in Madara's chakra system. From this position, she won't be able to heal it as well as she could if she had direct contact. For now, she'll try to keep him alive long enough, so she can deal with the scavengers.

His breathing was shallow, heartbeat barely there, skin cold, but he was aware. Sakura could practically feel that he was irritated.

The men around her said something, their words background noise as she worked. She hoped that they won't pull her away once they realize that her hand bounds had fallen off. Their chattering grew louder and others were coming to the scene.

Sakura didn't dare to open her eyes lest she lost her concentration. Madara stirred and she subtly smiled when hazy black eyes met hers. The white washed out of his hair and the numerous age lines disappeared from his face.

His gaze sharpened, brows drawn together.

She exhaled and drew her mouth in a flat line when his eyes ventured to the men behind her, scanning, calculating. The piercing stares of the scavengers burned her back. She didn't dare to move.

Madara lowered his head, eyes falling back to her.

Sakura mouthed _"No"_ knowing what his intentions were. Putting a strain on his chakra might redo everything she just did.

The man that was holding Madara pulled on his collar, pulling them apart. "What the fuck are you doing?"

Sighing she ducked out of the way.

Madara threw the man that was holding him over his shoulder, successfully knocking over the other man that had been holding Sakura.

She jumped to her feet, hands balled and smirked at the shocked men. "I'm sorry guys, but we will need to take our stuff back. No hard feelings."

Some of them took their guns off their backs while others directed the drones to attack them.

Taking the initiative she punched the first man closest to her in the face, shattering his skull. She wasn't a fan of killing people that were just trying to survive, but examples needed to be made. A shower of bullets and darts were supposed to come after like it always did. Instead, the scavengers were focusing on something else, faces drawn in terror. She pivoted on her heel and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms.

Madara had activated his Sharingan and caught some of the scavengers in a genjutsu. Others that had managed to evade it, called for their drones to attack him. He activated his Susanoo, the bullets and darts clinking off the blue chakra monster.

Judging from the irritation on his face she should better step back and go gather their stuff lest she wants to get caught up into that mess. Seriously, what was up with him? Sure she was angry as well, though that wasn't an excuse to use her flashiest techniques to take out a couple of humans, especially now when they knew what they were using. She had warned him that using his advanced techniques might only worsen his situation, redoing everything she healed much faster. It'll be a miracle if he doesn't start deteriorating halfway through the battle.

Sakura turned her back to the screams of the scavengers and the sounds of gunshots, quickly locating where the men had dropped off their stuff. Grumbling to herself she packed back up what she could.

The men had dragged them away from the crumbling city centre and into what she assumed used to be a park. Only a couple husks of trees were around and the buildings were less tall and decimated.

One of the men come running her direction. She turned around just in time to trip him with her extended foot. The frightened scavenger didn't look back what had tripped him, scrambling to get back to his feet. With a sickening crunch and a cry of pain, she stepped on his back. The man collapsed back on the ground. She put him out of his misery, crushing his spine with her foot.

Another one that had managed to escape the hands of Madara's susanoo came her way. She jumped in the runner's path, backhanding him off balance. The scavenger fell on his back, disoriented. Sakura crushed his jugular under her boot. There was a reason she liked to wear thick-soled boots.

With Madara showing off they'll have to kill every last one of the scavengers lest they want for word to spread about superhumans. In a world that was in constant fighting rumours like that spread like wildfire. She knew from experience.

Sakura calmly walked back to her pack. The scavengers didn't have much on themselves, except for their drones, armour-piercing guns, ammo, some food and scraps from old robots. Nothing of worth to her, except for the few bits of food. Slinging her backpack on her back and grabbing Madara's stuff along with her she waited for him to finish off the last scavenger and crush the remaining drones.

She laughed and shook her head when he dispelled his Susanoo with a self-satisfied grin. She had to admit that it had been a while since she'd last seen him use his Sharingan and its abilities.

The tips of his hair had turned white and she frowned. Handing him back his nodachi and backpack without any prompting she placed her hands on his chest. A displeased scowl stretched across her lips. His little stunt had undone nearly everything she'd done previously. "If I didn't know any better I would agree with the guy that said that you are compensating for something," she fussed, referring back to the scavenger that had commented about his sword, knowing that he'd heard that exchange as well. "Seriously, was all of that needed? It was overkill."

He grumbled. "Then it's good that you do know better because I needed that."

Sakura snorted. "Did you really need that? Because I feel like your ego needed it more than anything else."

Jaw locked, he looked away from her gaze.

Shaking her head with a small smile, she stepped back. As always she did what she could with his injury and unless he does a dumb stunt like this again it should hold for a couple of days.

He raised his hand to sling his backpack on his shoulder.

The tear in his glove caught her attention. "How about next time you don't show off? I could've handled the dart." With her head, she motioned to the tear.

Madara chuckled and set their pace out of the encompassed clearing. "Uh-huh, I would like to see you handle a dart in your brain."

She followed him, matching his step. "I'm a medic I can handle way more than you think I can."

"Yet you still fell to the darts."

"I'd like to see you try to handle three darts in you."

He stayed quiet and Sakura grinned in victory, tucking her backpack higher up her shoulders. Was it just the fatigue or did her pack feel heavier? She didn't pick up anything extra that would be that heavy.

Madara hummed, focusing his sights on the horizon where the setting sun coloured the sky in soft orange and pink tones. "No point in arguing over whose fault it was. We survived and that's all that matters."

She turned to look at his profile, the wind was strong enough that it kept his hair away and she had a full view of his sombre expression. "Yeah, sure, but for how long? It's been what? Three years? I'm tired of this. We've barely made any progress in getting back home."

"Patience, Sakura. Not everything you wish for is going to happen instantaneously." A small smile crossed his lips.

She grumbled. "You always say that." Whenever she brought up the topic he always told her to be patient. Her patience was wearing thin. Every day she worried about her friends, about the people still left on the battlefield. What happened to them? Did they get sent to different dimensions as well? What happened to Naruto and Sasuke-kun? The not knowing sometimes drove her insane and Madara's nonchalance made her absolutely livid.

"Because you always seem to be in a need of a reminder," came his delayed response.

"Yet I get the feeling that for the past three years you've given up hope."

He glanced at her shortly from the corner of his eye, not saying a word, leaving her guessing once again.

Sakura sighed. If he wasn't her only reminder of home, the only person she actually knew in this alien dimension she would have ditched him the first chance she had had. Being alone in this post-apocalyptic world where everyone was at each other's throats was a scary thought. Madara seemed to be more indifferent towards the state of the world and actually preferred the solitude. She couldn't. She missed her friends, she missed her home and she missed the normalcy of her life. Her only guess why this had happened was Kaguya and her god-like powers. That bitch was going to pay for trapping her in this hellhole with the most diabolical enemy of the last century.

"I'm going to get back home," she growled. "No matter what it takes." Even as the sun set, the next inhibited city over a desolate desert, her food reserves running low, she wasn't going to give up.

Madara watched the determination settle across her face – the way her brows furrowed and a heavy downwards tilt settled on her lips. Her eyes practically shone as the setting sun coloured her pink hair and features a soft orange.

Maybe he should tell her…

* * *

 _Fun fact: the resurrected Madara not needing food or water is canon, just like Obito. This is because of white Zetsu cells both of them have, which also grants them limited regeneration abilities._

 _Anyway, don't be afraid to tell me your thoughts and impressions this had on you. This means everything to a writer._

 _Also I'm planning to post another one-shot for ShiSaku day, so look out for that._


	2. Above Human

_I promised that I will continue this, so here's me continuing. Note for old readers: I changed the time period from ten years to three, ollia was right - that many amount of years made no sense. I was so quick to write the first part too that I had no explanation for it either. I also edited the first chapter, so it might read a bit differently now, though nothing else has changed._

 _This chapter gets a bit dark, so be warned - thoughts of suicide._

* * *

Sounds of her sharpening her knife filled the tiny room. The afternoon sun cast a warm glow through the single window. She was sure something had died in this room, the rotten stench was tickling her nostrils. A single questionable bed was in the room with a table and a ratty couch. For this world, this was considered luxurious. Sakura had long since learned to accept the poor conditions – it was either this or sleep on the streets where getting stabbed in your sleep wasn't an uncommon thing.

Madara was off to the side, sorting through his stuff he had piled on the bed. After his shower, he'd jet to put a shirt back on.

She didn't question it. It was hot, sweat trickled down the back of her neck. As soon as he'll leave she'll take a shower of her own. She was covered in sweat and grime and probably stunk like a dumpster.

He pulled his damp hair up in a ponytail like he always does when he goes on a solo mission. She'd once asked him about this particular habit. Silence had been her answer. Madara had picked up a bounty upon entering the city. Whenever an opportunity to spend time apart came they took it. It was one of the ways to preserve their sanity and not strangle each other in their sleep. He wasn't a bad travel buddy per se, but there was only so much she could take of a single person before she lashed out.

Sakura put aside her tools, clapping her hands clean from whatever dirt had settled on them. "Come here." She motioned for him.

Wordlessly he did as told, putting aside the nodachi he hardly ever let go of.

She placed her glowing hands on his chest. His skin was warm and damp. She avoided looking at his face. This was nothing but an innocent touch and throughout the years in throes of loneliness she has touched him a lot less innocently, yet she couldn't help but feel weird. She didn't consider him her enemy anymore – he wasn't her friend either. It was a relationship built in distress.

The check-up was needed there was new damage to his chakra system. The only thing she was grateful of was that she didn't have to parrot the warnings of using his chakra too much to him anymore, after too many close calls he'd learned his lesson.

Removing her hands she picked up a small device from the table. "In case anything happens." She handed the communications device to him.

Carelessly he grabbed it and pocketed it.

Sakura sighed and laid back on the couch. Something was on his mind, he was awfully quiet and tense. She didn't press it. If it was something important he'll tell her sooner or later, he always did.

Madara quickly dressed and packed up his stuff. He left in the same manner, using the window.

Laying her head on the couch she stared at the stained ceiling. The room suddenly felt larger.

Xxx

The city or what was left of it was bustling with people. In this time of day, the market was overfilled with people looking for food. Everyone was dressed in shades of grey or brown. She had hidden her vibrant hair under a hood. She kept her armoured jacket on despite the heat, to intimidate anyone who would dare to mug her. The more decked out with tech or gear someone was the more people avoided them, scared. It was a symbol as a prolific scavenger, a status that was very sought after.

She held her bag of parts they scavenged close to her. Thieves run rampant, no one was trustworthy. On a side street, someone was getting stabbed in the throat just for a piece of bread. Along the streets people lounged, begging. Some were injured, missing a limb or two. Everyone looked haggard. Her heart had once ached for those people. She wasn't going to step into the same trap again.

People walked haphazardly. Someone crashed into her, running past her.

She cursed, planning to teach the ruffian a lesson. Her breath hitched instead.

A mop of blonde hair. Orange.

She rushed forward, pushing aside people to catch up with the blond man.

Is it really…?

Her breathing went rampant.

After all this time…

People jumped out of her way, cursing and shouting at her. She didn't care. Her sights were only set on the man with the bright blonde hair. She grasped him by his shoulder, excitement rising. Finally… "Naruto..." She trailed off.

The man turned, confused and scared. "P-please don't hurt me." He hunched in on himself and away from her hand, visibly shaking.

Sakura blinked. The dirty face, brown eyes, broken nose… it definitely wasn't Naruto. Hell, he wasn't even wearing orange, but a scarf that was covered in rust dust. Her mind was playing tricks on her again.

She apologised and shouldered past the terrified man. Tears threatened to spill. This wasn't the first time she'd mistaken someone for Naruto or Sasuke. No matter how many times it happened it wrecked her heart, reminding her that she was alone.

Why did this have to happen to her?

Ignoring the people she quickly found a secluded spot and fell. She didn't care that the stair steps were dirty or probably covered in blood, nothing was clean here anyway. Her vision was blurred by tears. From her boot, she pulled out a familiar kunai – one of the last things she had on her from home. Her hand shook as she inspected the darkened blade. It had seen better days. Though she always remembered to regularly sharpen it. It was a last resort.

Tears fell and hear breath hacked. She raised the kunai to her neck. Maybe she should just end it all, end this suffering and misery. This wasn't living, she couldn't handle this. She missed her friends, her home. She missed seeing the green forests of Konoha, her little apartment, the hospital.

This wasn't fair…

The kunai was precariously close to cutting her skin open.

Just one swipe and it all will be over. It'll be over and she'll be back home.

"Hey! You, get offa ma property!"

A swing of something on the back of her head disrupted her and the kunai went flying from her hand. With a cry she dove after it, ignoring further shouts from the owner of the stairs. She can't lose it, she'll kill anyone that even dares to touch her kunai. The crowd hadn't seen her lose her weapon and she could peacefully retrieve it and place it back in her boot.

Wiping her eyes from tears she straightened her back. No, she can't give up this easily, this is not why she came here. She's gonna need a boost though, something to keep her going. Food will have to wait.

Madara wasn't going to like this.

Xxx

The stale air burned his eyes, the wind picking up the smell of whatever had died in the desert. The sun overhead was almost blinding and hot, creating heat waves in the distance. His feet sank into the sand with each step, slowing his progress in search of the bounty.

The poster he had picked up was relatively new and the target wouldn't have been able to go far in this weather. A sand storm was coming, the skies were clear for now, though in a couple of hours it'll change. Just past the city border, deeper into the desert was a Dead zone – a patrol route of Seekers and Harvesters. Anyone with more than one brain cell knew to avoid those areas, it was a sure way to die. This particular target sadly had a few screws missing. It was a man rumoured to tinker with odd guns, guns that made people disappear on the spot.

It had caught his interest. No one had been able to provide many details on the type of guns the man had created. He wanted to believe in the possibility that the whacko had created something more than a simple disintegration gun, something that could help Sakura. As far as he knew anything was possible in this world.

The area was empty, apart from few large boulders here and there, a few husks of trees. In the sand, there were little pieces of scrap mixed in. He was approaching the Dead zone. The terrain was mostly even and there was nothing of note, yet something was oddly familiar about it. This wasn't the first time a place felt familiar to him. He had his suspicions about what this meant, though nothing had confirmed them yet.

From the distance, something was flying towards him at high speeds. Madara waited until the last moment to shunshin out of the way. The sand exploded. Heavy footsteps shook the ground, levelling the dunes.

He scowled at the crater the rocket had left. Something wasn't right, a Harvester shouldn't be here, he wasn't close enough to the patrol line for any of the robots to catch sight of him.

Another rocket sailed through the air. The 15-meter Harvester was visible in the distance.

What a nuisance. He avoided the projectile with another shunshin, hand hovering over the hilt of his nodachi. A few slices with a chakra laden blade should put the thing out of commission. Or he could use ninjutsu, he'd been itching to use some of his techniques again. Sakura's warnings flew through his mind, but he ignored them. He was prepared for the worst-case scenario.

Madara removed his hand from the sword and waited for the robot to reach him instead. When it was close enough it activated its machine guns. A simple shunshin, hand seals and he unleashed a katon jutsu on it, dousing the robot in flames. He'd forgotten how the burn of the jutsu felt. A slow smile spread across his lips. The roaring flames on the Harvester crackled, sending sparks flying.

Across the distance, a voice called out. "You! How did you do that?" Stepping over a dune a man came out, decked out in tech, a controller in hand. He was dressed in rags, face covered in soot and grime. It looked like he hadn't seen scissors in a while. Though under all that dirt and hair it was the same man from his bounty poster.

How fortunate that his target would walk right into his arms.

The ragtag man kept throwing all kinds of questions, each next one getting more panicked and garbled.

It was like background noise to him. How should he do this? Flashy or simple and effective? He cracked his knuckles, mind flying over thousands of possibilities.

His target was falling into hysteria, hands working around the controller.

The Harvester behind him started moving, not minding that parts of it were still covered in flames. It activated its machine guns with a loud click and aimed at him.

Madara avoided the barrage of bullets. The Harvester wasn't fast enough to keep up.

Nearby the ragtag man was in a frenzy, punching buttons and sweating profusely.

The robot seemed to follow only him and completely ignore the whacko. Odd, he was a standing target right in the line of the Harvester's sensors, the robots weren't known for being picky. He shouted something unintelligible. The Harvester stopped its attacks and stood still.

Suspiciously he turned towards the man, hand out of habit flying to his nodachi.

The whacko plugged his ears and pressed a button. An ear-splitting screech ripped out of the Harvester.

Falling to the ground on his knees, he covered his ears as best he could. The sound was reverberating in his head, making his vision blur. This is why he hated Harvesters, annoying things could use sound as a weapon. Painstakingly he removed his hands and pulled out his nodachi, planting the blade down in the sand. He went through the few required hand seals and held onto his sword, sending an electrical charge in the sky.

Lighting fell from the sky in numerous, thunderous blasts. Sand exploded all around. Lighting naturally pulled towards the metal Harvester, hitting it multiple times. The screeches desisted and the robot fell, shaking the ground. Its systems ceased to work with a loud whine.

The whacko had been close enough to him to avoid getting charred by the lighting. He was mumbling nonsense, staring at the ruined robot in terror.

Madara pulled his nodachi from the ground, shaking the sand off. "Just for that, I'm going to make your end extra special." They connected eyes, his mistake. Activating his Sharingan he caught the man in a genjutsu. He explored his head, sifting through memories and information. The Harvester had been under the ragtag man's control, the controller a device that could overtake a robot's systems. Certainly, something that could prove to be useful in the future. Sadly, the guns he'd been making prior had truly been disintegration guns. Useless.

Calmly walking up to the whacko, he gathered chakra to the edge of his fingertips, creating a wind blade. He sliced the man's neck in one quick swipe and he fell over in a sprout of blood, horror etched on his face.

He scavenged what he could from the man, the controller a priority and whatever was salvageable from the Harvester. The bounty had been too simple and over too quickly. What a disappointment. Despite the scorching sun and many layers of clothes, he'd hardly broken a sweat.

Heavy metallic stomping echoed in the area. The silhouettes of many robots were merging with the setting sun. They'd been close enough to the Dead zone that other Harvesters and Seekers had heard the screech.

Setting down his stuff and hiding the body of the dead man under his jacket, he smiled. A single Harvester hadn't been strong enough to even be a match. Multiple – maybe they'll pose a bit of a challenge. He'd take anything to fix this unsatisfying bounty hunt.

An hour later and many, many Harvesters and Seekers demolished, he had won. Because of his pathetic condition, he tired out a lot quicker, which had made him rush through each opponent and the consequences were visible on his body. Wrinkles marred his hands and the wind was blowing white strands of hair in his face. So annoying. Even as a child he could have fought longer than a measly hour.

He retrieved his stuff. Exhaustion and lack of chakra made his hands tremble throughout the process of assembling his new creation. It had taken him months to figure out how to liquefy his chakra and store it, even longer to figure out a contraption to inject it safely. He had learned early on that simply drinking it only made him sick. A couple of cleverly worded questions to Sakura and he discovered that injecting it would garner him the required results. He pulled out a cartridge that he previously had filled up and placed it in the injection gun.

This was the moment of truth. If it works then he will get an extra boost of chakra that'll help his regenerative abilities to fix the damage if not – death. No pressure.

Placing the end of the gun against his arm he exhaled, hesitating to press the trigger. Death had never scared him before. So why did it now? Shaking the dumb thoughts out of his head he injected the chakra and waited. Nothing happened for five minutes until finally, slowly it took effect.

Months of hard work had paid off – he had a way to prevent himself from dying without the help of Sakura.

In high spirits, Madara pulled back on his jacket and picked up his dead bounty, slinging him across his shoulder. The man had nearly bled dry by this point, coating the sand around him in dark brown.

The sun had set, darkness settling over the desert. Decimated robots and scrap scattered the terrain. Some of the robots emitted steam or smoke, crackling. He hadn't bothered to scavenge any of them, doubtful if there was anything useful left.

It was a short trek back to the city. The sandstorm was approaching – the winds were stronger and sand was moving along the ground in rapid speeds, creating small whirlwinds here and there.

He tied a scarf around his face to keep the sand from reaching his mouth. Almost inexplicably his eyes were drawn to the left, where the winds had uncovered a rock. It was pulling him in. His feet moved on their own volition. A frown settled on his lips. It wasn't a rock but a stone tablet, a tablet he knew very well. His suspicions were confirmed.

Involuntarily his eyes strayed to the newly risen moon.

* * *

 _The chapter was shorter than I usually write, though I didn't want to pad anything. I want to be concise, so chapter length might vary. There'll be five in total. Everything will follow this storyline until the end, though if this somehow does well I might consider writing a bonus chapter depicting their first time together in this world. Here's to hoping that I manage to get to the end at all lol_

 _Also want to thank the lovely people that commented on this story, especially those that did so months after I published it, really kicked my ass into gear and want to work on this again. Thank you so much and as always don't forget to leave your thoughts down below._


	3. Cities In Dust

The sun was high in the sky, sweltering. A few dark clouds rolled by, that never was a good sign. The ruins around them were corroded with acid rain.

Sweat trickled down the back of her neck, her knuckles were raw and she was sure that she had sprained an ankle an hour ago. Yet the robots still persisted. No matter how many of them they took down others soon took their place. She ground her teeth, knuckles white. It had been hours and she was bone tired, her anger the only thing that pushed her forward. This abandoned city should've been just that – abandoned, but for some reason a flurry of Seekers had found them, following relentlessly. Even when they tried to outrun them a new one managed to find them, it was like the robots could predict where they would go next.

Red flashed right over them. A Seeker was right on their heels. It hadn't attacked yet and Sakura wasn't about to wait for it to do so.

She swiped her brow from sweat and planted her feet in the ground. "Fuck this." Turning around she leaped the robot, fist extended. Somehow she managed to plant her fist right into the front corpus of the robot despite her low chakra reserves and swimming vision. The punch was weaker than usual, still, it toppled the robot over and ripped through the metal plating, damaging the systems inside.

Madara sighed, shaking his head. She judged him for acting flashy while she couldn't keep up their agreement of staying low and out of sight. Her little stunt caused a nearby carcass of a building fall apart, kicking up clouds of dust and sending tremors across the area. No doubt other Seekers picked up on the disturbance.

Sakura jumped down from the robot. A few choice words were at the tip of his tongue, though he didn't get to say them. She latched onto his arm and dragged him into the closest building, pushing both of them into a shadowy corner. He was about to protest her manhandling, but she covered his mouth with her hand.

"Shh, there's a Ravager outside," she whispered, eyes trained on the small patch of ground outside that was visible from their position.

He glared and removed her hand.

Nothing happened for minutes. Sakura was tense as a spring, hands clenching and unclenching.

He instead listened to the sounds. Ravagers themselves relied heavily on sound; there was a telltale click they emitted whenever they were searching.

The heavy stomping of the Seekers rattled the ground and creaks of their joints echoed. Still no clicking.

Sakura pressed herself against the wall beside him.

A harsh click reverberated through the air.

He opened his eyes just as humanoid looking robotic feet entered their field of vision. Both of them held their breath.

The Ravager stood there, the clicks increasing in consistency. It was small enough that if it managed to detect them it could easily follow them through the buildings.

A minute passed. The humid air and heat made the many layers of clothes a burden. Sweat trickled down his face nearly trickling into his eyes. He didn't dare to move.

The Ravager moved on with heavy slow steps.

Only after they couldn't hear it anymore they exhaled and he could wipe the sweat from his face with his sleeve.

"How the fuck do they keep finding us? Wasn't this supposed to be a deserted city?" Sakura grumbled, voice louder than should be necessary.

"All of these supposed cities look the same to me, I doubt it's any different to those things." Yet she did pose a valid question. The rate in which they came across Seekers and now a Ravager was unnatural.

"Fuck my life." She gently thumped her head against the wall. A loud resounding crack echoed through the building and the ground under them collapsed.

Madara fell...hard. He lost sight of Sakura. Chunks of the floor rained down on him. Everything was a blur, it was dark and he had landed in something wet. He waited until everything quieted down before activating his sharingan. He was met with a wall of rocks and rubble. Just fantastic. When he tried to move pain shot up through his arm. One of his hands was crushed under a large piece of debris.

This just keeps getting better and better. It would be a miracle if the Ravager didn't hear the ruckus they just made.

"Sakura?"

A string of muffled curses was his response.

The rubble around him shifted and a couple of smaller rocks fell on him. Crap, he has to get out of here before he gets crushed. What to do? With his hand crushed he was a bit limited in jutsu to use. The most obvious was a phasing technique, but that required both hands to execute. Here's to hoping that it works with just one.

Sakura busted through the rubble with a curse. Her chakra was way too low and exhaustion was weighing down on her senses. This was why going into these buildings was dangerous, shit could collapse at any second. Thankfully, she hand landed relatively safely and hadn't sustained any injuries apart from a couple of bruises and scratches. Using what strength she had left she moved the closest rocks out of her way. It was dark and the dust was making her nose itch. She pulled up her ratty scarf over her nose.

"Madara?"

No response.

"Fuck, this is a mess." She could sense his chakra signature nearby, so he hadn't fallen too far from her. She mumbled random curses under her breath and started moving rocks out of the way. This was exactly what her day needed, a nice cherry on top would be the Ravager coming back and spraying her with bullets. Her clothes stuck to her like a second skin and the air was so heavy with moisture that it was hard to breathe. "You still breathing?"

There wasn't a reply for so long that she started moving rocks again and almost missed his deadened response.

"Kind of."

She huffed and swiped her brow from sweat. "Good enough."

The space they had fallen into was tiny and she didn't have much room to move the debris. If she wouldn't be afraid of crushing him she'd just smash the rocks to pieces and speed up the process. All over it took her twenty minutes to figure out a way to remove all of the debris without creating another collapse, everything was so brittle.

Through the dark, all she could see were the glow of his sharingan and a faint outline of his prone body. She extended her hand.

"Other hand."

She scrunched her eyebrows in confusion, but still extended her left hand instead. Trying to pull him up with just her regular strength was a challenge, thankfully getting out of the hole wasn't as hard. She shook the dirt from her hair, glad to see some light again. Madara had a displeased grimace on his face which caught her attention. He was observing his hand, and suddenly things made sense. "That doesn't look pretty."

He tore his gaze away. "Let's just get out of here." He was inclined to agree with Sakura, it hurt like a bitch too. This wasn't something he could just leave alone to heal on itself, the damage was too grave.

Xxx

That evening it had started raining. The rain was poisonous and they had no other options, but to seek shelter in one of the decimated buildings. Some of the robots still patrolled the ruins outside, none of them had managed to find them yet though.

They sat around a small fire they had been able to muster up from old furniture. Despite the days heat it had gotten cold fast as soon as the rain had hit. Currently, it was pouring loudly.

Sakura had done what she could with his mangled hand. Her chakra levels were dangerously low, so she had used practical knowledge to rearrange the bones and put it in a makeshift cast. She hadn't been happy about the task, even now she was restless and paced around the fire, a piece of bread in her hands.

Madara had been observing her mood for a while now. In the heath of the moment, her anger had been understandable, now he could just marvel at her ability to stay so angry while dead exhausted. He ignored her muttering and inconsistent pacing by focusing on the flickering flames of the fire.

With an unladylike grunt, Sakura dropped down on the ground and started rummaging the sizzling fire with a stick, knocking up embers.

Her behaviour was off the norm and he had a suspicion why. She was highly irritable, acted rashly, was able to push past her limits way more than usual and spoke as if someone had pissed in her breakfast. "You took them again, didn't you?"

Her reply was instantaneous. "Shut the fuck up!" Her lip curled back in a sneer.

"You did."

"I told you to shut. The fuck. Up." She met his eyes, a clear warning to back off. The stick in her hand nearly broke.

He sighed, the exhaustion from the days' events weighing him down. "You're angry and you only ever get this pissed when you take those damn drugs. Didn't the last time teach you better?"

She damn hissed at him, throwing the broken stick aside and picking up a new one from the pile. "I can make my own decisions, _mom_." Sarcasm dripped from her voice.

Madara rubbed the bridge of his nose, throwing her a tired glance. "If you die, you can only blame yourself."

"Oh, get off your high horse, asshole. Like you're the perfect example of safe living." She threw the stick in the fire and got up to pace again, this time a lot further from him and the fire.

He supposed that that had been inevitable. She had promised to stay away from those damn "kill pills", but the addictive drug had called her back. She thought that the drugs were helping her, help her stay focused and energized and the sad part was that they did...for a while. The drug was made to be highly addictive and eventually lethal and, if he was honest with himself, he didn't want her to die.

The quiet lasted for ten minutes. Sakura was back and rummaging through her backpack, throwing out stuff all across the barren room while cursing profusely.

He paid no attention to her theatrics.

Sakura jumped up with an exclamation. "A fucking tracker! Madara, look at this! Those jerkwads stuffed a fucking tracker in my bag." She held up a plastic bottle stuffed with metal contraptions, a snarl on her face.

"Is that the reason-"

She cut him off with a yell. "Yes! Of fucking course! What else could it be? If they weren't already dead I would wring their necks for this shit." She crushed the bottle in her hand, metal bits flying everywhere. Curses continued to fall from her lips as she stomped on the metal bits, like a little child throwing a tantrum. It was almost comical if not for the fact that she was under the influence.

He had a comment about the management of her backpack, but he held it back lest he ends up on the other end of her curses. He knew from experience that her vocabulary could be endless and frankly he wanted to get in at least a few hours of sleep that night. Hopefully, this will be a lesson for her to organize her backpack more often.

Xxx

In the morning Sakura looked like hell, face pale and covered in a thin layer of sweat, heavy bags under her eyes. She'd been restless the whole night, even now her hands were shaking. Whenever she took a bite from her improvised sandwich she scrunched her face like she was about to throw up. In short, they'll probably won't be able to travel today at all. He didn't think he could carry her either with his hand out of commission.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, hands folded in her lap, her food forgotten.

"Just promise me that you won't take them anymore, for real this time."

"I-I'll try."

He didn't harp on her further, especially when it wasn't her fault for being addicted in the first place.

Heavy clouds rolled through the sky, the air chilly. The weather had let up, though there was a high possibility of raining again. All of the robots had left the area. It didn't mean that they were safe though or could stay in one place for long. Sakura didn't have a lot of food and water supplies and it was quite a while away to the next inhabited city.

"How did you survive those seventy-something years in a cave alone?" She broke the silence, picking her food with her fingers.

Madara hesitated to answer, that being a period in his life he didn't like to think back to much. He had been hesitant to tell Sakura what had happened before the 4th war in the first place. "I didn't spend all of my time in the cave."

"But still, you were in hiding for so long. How did you manage that?" She finally met his eyes, curiosity and hope in them.

She had never bothered to ask him about his feelings like this, it was odd, he didn't think that she even cared. In the past year, they had become more friendly and Sakura's resentment had faded, yet she was still distant at times, lost in her little world. "Find something to do and don't think about anything else other than your goal."

"That's it?"

"Pretty much."

Clear disappointment washed over her face and she frowned deeply. "But...didn't you, like...miss your friends, family...socializing?"

He snorted. "This might be a foreign concept to you, but not everyone likes socializing."

"...oh." Her tone was almost defeated and sad, she didn't even fight him back on his condescending tone.

He was going have to do this, wasn't he? As much as he didn't like it and wasn't particularly good at he was going have to give her a damn pep talk if just to get that kicked puppy look off her face. "Don't think about this negatively, look on the bright side – you have a plan going and you're not alone in this."

She didn't outwardly react, only fumbled with the hem of her shirt, deep in thought.

Of course, he failed to cheer her up, comforting someone wasn't his strongest suit. He didn't know the right things to say or do, never had. If he could he would usually avoid situations like that and leave it up to someone else who could give the emotional support. At least he tried. He picked up his nodachi and started fiddling with the guard for at least something to do and not focus on the awkward silence.

"I...maybe you're right."

He was? ...of course, he was.

"Thank you, Madara." A small smile slipped across her lips, her hands relaxing.

Despite himself, he smiled as well. It was a small achievement and changed nothing in the long run, but at least he had somehow managed to make her feel better.

Sakura fidgeted, avoiding looking at him. "Can I...can I hug you?"

Of course, she would ask that she sought comfort in touch. "...fine."

Her face split with a huge grin and she threw herself on him, holding tight.

He nearly lost his balance. Still, he let her bury her face in his chest. She was so weird sometimes and needy. How had she managed to survive so long in this heartless world? She was barely hanging on by a thread but still going. It was determination that he could appreciate and understand. This did make him feel slightly guilty for keeping things from her. She was an open book and told him everything, even when he didn't want to know. It was something he couldn't return, he didn't even share her enthusiasm in her goal.

Sakura retreated, a peaceful expression on her face. Despite the smile, she looked drought, like she was barely staying awake. It didn't hinder her energy though. She pulled her journal from her bag. "I didn't find anything helpful back in the city, though I feel like we're close." She skimmed through the pages until she landed on the latest one where she had written down a list. "We still have five potential places to check."

Unlike her he didn't have such high hopes for her plan, he didn't trust the technology here, especially some sort of _super AI_ that was supposedly controlling all of the robots in the world.

Sakura chattered to herself, recounting all of the places they'd checked already and how she's sure that they'll find the AI in no time.

He doubted that finding the mysterious AI will solve their problem, the chances of it having a device that could send them back like Sakura was hoping, seemed slim. If there was such a device wouldn't they have already found it? Still, he listened, if it made Sakura feel more grounded he didn't mind hearing her fantasies.

There was hope back on her face, it was almost like the incident with the drugs hadn't happened and he was about to wipe that smile off her face again.

"Sakura?"

She stopped mid-word to incline her head towards him. "Hm?"

Did she have to know? It could potentially devastate her and it wasn't like it would change their situation in any way. Yet it wasn't right to keep it from her. "Our deduction for this world was wrong."

"What do you mean?" Now he got her full attention.

"This isn't another dimension this is the future."

She blinked, her smile falling. "That hardly seems possible."

This was the part where he has to come clean and for some reason, it was harder to process than it was supposed to be. He hesitated for a long while. "For the past few months I had suspected that this was our world, there were places that felt familiar. It was just a hunch, but finally a few days ago I got my confirmation."

Her face scrunched up, but she didn't say anything.

Madara continued, "I saw the Stone Tablet, a monument that had been passed down for generations in the Uchiha clan."

"Wait, wait! Are you sure it wasn't just some random rock?"

 _Seriously?_

Sakura got the point and waved her hands, apologizing. "It's just a lot to process, especially when this world looks nothing like home and doesn't even have chakra."

She was…taking this surprisingly well, he supposed it hadn't sunk in with her yet. "Well, a couple of thousand years can change a world." He kept the part where he suspected that Kaguya was still around as well to himself. She didn't need to know that just yet.

She leaned forward, mouth open. "A-a couple thousand? Are you sure?"

"Not entirely. it's just the most logical explanation."

Sakura exhaled, her journal falling into her lap. A long stretch of silence followed with Sakura flabbergasted and staring at the ground.

It was a lot to take in, especially for someone like her. She loved her home and she'd do anything for it, must be overwhelming to find out that her home had turned into this. He did wonder if it might have been his fault with the Moon of the Eye plan that the world took such a bad turn. He did unwillingly release Kaguya.

There must be other ways to get back, ways that didn't involve relying on something that was nothing just a bunch of rumours. Kaguya had managed to send them to the future, why couldn't he do it as well? All information about jutsu had been destroyed aeons ago which complicated things. It was possible that it could be a rinnegan technique, but such techniques required a lot of chakra that in his condition he did not possess…

"This does not change things." Sakura's suddenly firm voice broke him out of his musings. "If not a device to hop dimensions then a device to travel through time. I'm going to find it." She picked her journal back up, pulled out a pencil and started scribbling in the journal.

If by then she hasn't already led herself to ruin, he hoped so too.

* * *

 _Thanks so much to everyone who left me feedback, it means a lot. Hopefully, this chapter has brought some light on the situation. Also, kudos to you if you figured out which franchise I'm referencing really heavily in this story._


	4. Storm Center

A cool wind blew, ruffling her hair. The air stunk of burned oil. Lots and lots of tiny scraps marred the dunes. Heatwaves were visible in the distance. Another Zone Zero - an expanse of sand that went on for days. Some of them held a secret or two. Sakura had heard in one of the cities that this particular zone Zero held a scrap yard the size of a village. She didn't hold much hope about it, the one other scrap yard they had come across in their travels hadn't held much, though she was hoping to find a robot on which she could test out the controller Madara had given her, hopefully even getting a faster travel method with the robot.

They had been walking for days with seemingly no end in sight. It had been eerily quiet – no robots, no scavengers, nothing.

The wind picked up, blowing grains of sand in her eyes. She had a suspicion that a sand storm might be approaching, the skies were clear, but storms had a penchant to come out of nowhere. Braving a storm out in the open desert was dangerous, she hoped that they found the scrap yard before it hit.

As always during their travels they kept quiet, reserving their strength for walking. Today she felt a need to break up the routine, change some things up. "Do you think we'll ever get back?"

He was quiet for a long while, not even reacting. "If the stars align..."

Sakura sighed deeply. She didn't know why she even asked that question, he never gave the answers that she wanted to hear. "Sometimes I wish I could have your nonchalance and bare this like another simple Tuesday."

"Trust me, you don't want that."

"Why not? You seem to have this so easy – you don't miss anyone, you don't care about anyone and you probably don't want to go back either."

"It's incredibly lonely and it changes you, for the worse. That's not who you want to be, Sakura." He spared a short glance her way.

She shook her head, she wanted to explain to him how hard it was to live in a world like this and not know what had happened to everybody she cared about, but she didn't want to argue. He was probably right anyway. Was this how he felt, though? ...it would explain a lot.

Over the edge of a large dune, the desert opened up to a clearing of junk and scrap. They had found it. She couldn't contain her excitement and grinned like a doof fidgeting in her spot.

Madara seemed not to be as joyful as her, eyes pinned to something further up in the distance.

There was a large building with various metallic towers and hundreds of robots of varying sizes walking around. They had come across a charging station.

 _Well, shit._

A loud whirring disrupted the calm. Below them, among the scrap, a Seeker had noticed them, a flurry of Ravagers at its feet.

She cursed and took off running into the maze of junk, Madara just behind her. She haphazardly took in her surroundings, trying to find a way to shake the Seeker of their tracks.

Jets flew over their heads – Fighters.

She silently cursed whoever had spread the rumour that this was just a simple junkyard. This was a fucking den of robots, seeking recharge. Leaving this place alive is going to be difficult, especially with the number of Ravagers around.

Zigzagging through the walls of scrap they inadvertently got closer to the station itself. The area started to clear out and multiple carcasses of robots laid around in various states of destruction. The wind grew stronger and with that, the smell of oil and something burned. Various little robots, a class she didn't recognize, slid around the area. They didn't seem to be hostile, ignoring their sudden appearance and focusing on carrying around piles of scrap.

They found an alcove made out of a large metal carcass and dipped into it. A chorus of clicks and the loud footsteps of the Seeker echoed in the area, she wasn't even sure if it came from the robots that were following them.

Sakura tried to catch her breath, sweat pouring down her face. After the three days of travel on little substance, her backpack felt like a bag of bricks.

Madara stayed near the edge of the alcove, a little less winded than her.

She fell heavily on the ground, resting her back against the metal carcass. This place seemed to be more organized than it originally looked – there were multiple guards on ground and air and what seemed to be cleaners or maintenance robots. If they hadn't been caught off guard maybe they could have tried to infiltrate the main building for clues, but alas they had been pushed deep into the junkyard, surrounded by robots of various class. Getting out was the main goal, though she won't have enough chakra to fight the robots and make it through Zone Zero.

"I have an idea." Madara was surveying the outside, hands clenched.

Sakura scrunched her eyebrows. "This idea of yours by any chance involves the use of your mangekyou?" He stayed quiet and she frowned. "You can't do that. You've been using it too much lately, it'll cause a strain-"

"I know! Do you have any other ideas?" His tone was harsh and impatient, making her flinch.

She let her eyes roam across the expanse of scrap before them. "Well, we could use the controller and cause a distraction, which would give us a spot to escape."

"We don't have the time to search for a robot, especially when we don't know how that device works."

"But-"

"We have no choice if we want to get out of this in one piece."

She sighed, running a hand through her tousled hair. "I hate it when you're right."

"Glad we could come to an understanding." He was glaring at something in the distance, sharingan activated.

Sakura rolled her eyes and latched onto his arm. Two handsigns later and she was entrapped in a blue glow, slowly rising from the ground, the metal carcass falling away. The situation reminded her of the last time she had been enveloped in a Susanoo. She scrunched her eyes closed and pushed away from the surge of emotions overcoming her. Getting out alive first, moping later.

When she opened her eyes Madara was continuing to weave a familiar string of handsigns. She placed her hand over his. "This isn't the time to show off. I know you hate to hear it, but you're not strong enough to handle the strain." Especially if he were to create clones of himself with a Susanoo.

He scoffed. "Bullshit. I know my limits." And pulled his hand free from hers.

"Not currently you don't. Your chakra leak increases every time you use your techniques. Pushing it to the limit might be instant death for you."

A displeased grimace set on his face, but he let down his hands anyway. "Fine."

Red flashed across her vision. Multiple Seekers and Harvesters had locked on them, Fighters changed their course. The little maintenance robots scattered. With their added height they were only a little bit taller than the Seekers and in the centre of attention to all of them.

Why had she agreed to this plan again?

Madara easily moved them across the piles of scrap, crushing any Ravagers that were in the way.

She gasped in realization and pulled out the controller. Maybe with the elevated position, she'll be able to get a connection to one of the robots or something. She turned it on, extending its antenna and its LED lights flashed in various colours. Pointing it at one of the larger Harvesters she paused. The buttons weren't labelled, except for the huge, red start button.

Madara threw a short glance her way, not saying anything.

Fighters roared across the skies, dropping bombs on the Susanoo. A barrage of bullets rained down from the closest Seekers.

Her hands were shaking. Which button is she supposed to push? _Fuck it._ She ran her down the controller, pressing every button. One of the Harvesters abruptly stopped. Smiling she ran her hand down the controller again and the Harvester started twitching, activating all of its weapons at once. The sight was comical and if she wasn't in such a serious situation she would have laughed.

The erratic movements and weapons of the Harvester caught other robots in the crossfire. It only took a split second for a fair amount of them to turn on the betrayer.

Madara scoffed at her antics and she threw him a cheeky grin. His attention was mostly focused on fighting off two Seekers and their flame throwers.

She laughed as one of the Seekers attacked the controlled Harvester only to get riddled with bullets. Maybe there was hope for them to get out of this unscathed. Although...Madara wasn't doing too well, first signs of lack of chakra showing – wisps of white hair and his complexion much paler than usual.

Fighters continued to circle them, dropping bombs and shooting stun harpoons. Some of the harpoons managed to lodge into the Susanoo, cracking the armour.

Sakura yanked on his arm. "You need to drop it. You can't handle anymore," she shouted, eyes flying over the extending cracks.

"Not yet." He was clearly out of breath.

"Madara, please, this isn't working." He isn't going to be able to last for much longer; there were way too many of them. The Ravagers were like ants at the feet of the Susanoo.

A loud rumble joined the cacophony of the Fighters' jets and Harvester screeches and the sand exploded right in front of them. A long metallic body shot up from the ground, large jaws opening up, towering over them. Her mouth opened in a silent gasp. It let out a loud screech and arched over them, burying in the sand, nearly toppling the Susanoo over.

"What the hell?" She had only heard tales about a thing like that – a large worm-like robot that lived in the sand. Three years in this world and they had never seen one and she had been sure that it had been a story to scare people to stay out of the desert as if large, towering robots with deadly weapons weren't scary enough.

More clinks echoed from the armour of the Susanoo. Their advancement out of the yard was slow and he hated it, the constant attacks from the robots slowed the progress and drained his chakra way too fast for comfort. Bullets kept ricocheting off the armour, the noise almost deafening. A couple of the harpoons managed to pierce the armour, creating cracks. His strength was waning quickly and vision was starting to swim.

Just move forward.

Sakura said something that he didn't catch. Another stun harpoon pierced the Susanoo. This was pathetic and he low key hated himself for losing his strength so fast. If only he had enough chakra to fly.

The Worm burrowed under the feet of the Susanoo and blasted up from the ground, showering them in sand. It screeched and aimed its jaws at the head of the Susanoo.

With the Susanoo's blade, Madara cut the Worm's head off. Its body fell, crushing the Ravagers that had surrounded them.

A Fighter dropped a bomb and the noise deafened him momentarily. They were so close – almost out of the scrap yard. Harpoons pelted them, ripping right through the armour. A sharp scream ripped through the air and Sakura went flying out of the Susanoo, a harpoon lodged into her side. She landed further down in the desert.

Without thinking, Madara dispelled the jutsu and jumped after Sakura. The sudden disappearance of the Susanoo confused the robots, giving him ample time to get away. Everything was spinning and his insides were screaming in pain. With clenched teeth he powered through it, keeping his sharingan activated.

Sakura was just up ahead, half-buried in the sand, the area around her matted in dark blood. She was unconscious and the thick harpoon piercing her in her midriff. There was no time to assess the severity of her injuries, Ravagers had caught onto him and were steadily approaching, machine guns poised at the ready.

He picked her up bridal style and ran. The winds were roaring, pelting him in the face with sand grains. The storm was a blessing – the Ravagers won't be able to follow him through it, their sensors too overloaded by the noise of the storm. He ran as far as he could only stopping when it felt like he was going to keel over.

The storm raged on and with no other options he used a doton jutsu to enclose them away from the storm, it had the dangers of getting buried under the sand, but he didn't have much time anymore for any other option. It was dark and loud. He couldn't activate his sharingan. Blindly he felt around his backpack for the injection gun. He'd had the foresight to already load it with a vial.

Sakura moaned loudly as he aligned the gun with his arm.

"Madara? Where are we?" her voice was groggy.

He took the shot, the sound of it painfully loud.

"What's going on?" She moved and immediately gasped in pain. A string of curses fell from her lips.

"Careful, you have a harpoon in you." He placed the gun back in his backpack. The effect this time was instantaneous – whatever fatigue he felt, slowly dissipated.

"I...what?" She struggled around, hissing in pain. "Why is it so fucking dark and loud?"

"The storm."

"Oh, shit. Are you alright? How the hell did we get away?" She shuffled around with her hands, possibly feeling for the wall.

Madara pushed her against the wall by her shoulder, taking one of her hands in his to stop her from flailing around. "I'm fine, you should worry about yourself first, you're losing a lot of blood."

"But-"

"Don't argue about this."

She attempted to sigh only ending up hissing in pain. "Can you...pull it out?"

It took a bit of feeling around to find the rod of the harpoon. Without any warning he yanked it out, making Sakura scream. Thankfully, she was quick with healing it up, the green glow of her chakra illuminating the dark space. She was weak and only able to heal herself up to the point where her wound wasn't fatal anymore.

"Now can you explain to me what's going on? How are you okay? I saw you getting worse and worse by the minute."

"I created a solution."

"What?"

"It took months of work, but I found a way to get my chakra back up and let the regenerative abilities do the rest."

Sakura was quiet for a long while and without the ability to see her facial expressions he was a bit worried that she might blow up in his face. "Why didn't you tell me? I could've helped." her voice was quiet, barely audible over the roaring of the wind.

"I don't know, I just wanted to do something by myself."

"Oh...is this one of those things I'm too preppy to understand again?"

He chuckled, glad to see her joking already, at least she wasn't upset like he'd been expecting. "I guess."

A silence settled between them, the slowly receding winds the only sound.

Her breath was laboured and it was obvious that she was in pain. "So..." She let the word hang between them for a while. "Is it possible that there is something else you might be hiding?"

"Why are you asking?"

"It's kind of become like a pattern with you. You have been doing it for years and sometimes you won't tell me anything unless I specifically ask."

"Is that so?"

"Oh yeah, you're annoying like that." she laughed, gasping afterwards, letting a curse slip past her lips.

He didn't deign that with an answer, he didn't think that he had been that predictable let alone annoying.

"So, what is it? Tell me." Her voice rose with her excitement.

There was no way he will be able to avoid this, is there? He couldn't simply walk away either, the storm was still going. "It's just a theory..."

"Mhm?"

She was way too eager to hear this. Sneaky, putting him on the spot like this. "Kaguya is still around and I think that there might be a rinnegan technique that could wrap time."

"Wait, wait, am I hearing this right? You still have the rinnegan? And Kaguya...?" Her intonation increased, voice becoming sharper.

"As I said, it's still just a theory, I can't even-"

She cut him off with a shout. "All this time we had a way back and you didn't bother to tell me? What the fuck, Madara? I've wasted three years of my life in this shit hole, constantly worrying and being on the edge of having a paranoia attack every other day."

This was why he didn't want to tell her – she jumped to conclusions way too quickly. "I didn't tell you because it's just a theory, I do have the rinnegan, but there's no point in it if I can't use its abilities."

"But did you even try?"

Her accusatory tone was testing his patience. "Using it would involve me dying and sorry for not wanting to die for the – what time would it make now? - third time."

Sakura growled in anger. "What's fucked up is that you never bothered to tell me! I'm not helpless or stupid, if you'd just told me then we could have come up with a solution that could have worked, or anything, especially with Kaguya still around. Glad to know that I'm just a dumb nuisance to you to string along for fun."

"This is why I never told you because you can't handle it."

"I can't handle it? I can handle way more than you think, asshole, you just assumed that I can't."

It was pointless to argue with her, she was too angry to listen to reason.

She continued. "I can't believe this. Because of your own selfish needs, you decided that I should be strung along as well?"

Now she was going too far and throwing around unwarranted blame. "Excuse me for once wanting to live without some kind of an agenda weighing down on me."

She snorted. "All of your _agendas_ have been bullshit from the very start. It's your fault for being a fuckup, doesn't mean that you can string me along for whatever this shit is you're trying to live as now."

Without warning he dispelled the doton jutsu, sand falling on them immediately. He wasn't going to stay here and listen to her nonsense. The storm had waned and the sand hadn't shifted too much for him to simply step out of it to free his legs.

Sakura spluttered, waving her arms to get the sand off. "The fuck you doing?"

If she wanted to act like a bitch then she could do it alone. He chose a random direction and started walking towards it, her angry shouts slowly becoming background noise. He didn't need her anyway, with the injection gun at his disposal he can handle his unfortunate condition by himself. And to think that at one point he had considered helping her, despite the risks to his own life in using the rinnegan.

* * *

 _Thanks so much to everyone who gave me feedback on the last chapter. Next chapter is the last one and oh boy they split up. Any predictions on what might happen next? Will they be able to make it back home or will they be stuck here forever?_


	5. Take Me Home

People were shouting and screaming, gunshots came one after the other. In mere minutes the relatively calm street had turned into a war zone. There were so many people on the narrow street that it was difficult to manoeuvre. No one knew what was happening, except for him. A bounty he had been chasing, unfortunately, had guns, lots of them and she wasn't afraid to use them in a public space and in return neither were the citizens themselves. It was pure chaos. He'd been wall jumping to keep sights on the bounty and not get dragged into the scuffle on the streets.

Rifle gunshot echoed through the street. A couple of wayward bullets nearly nipped him. It was enough for his bounty to pick up speed and use the crowds to blend in.

More people filled the streets in panic. The noise was nearly deafening.

He jumped down from the wall, turning a corner the bounty had disappeared behind. Someone ran in front of him and got shot, blood spraying in all directions. He collided with the body, nearly toppling over. Keeping an eye on his escaping and gloating bounty, he scrambled to collect himself.

The woman was standing at the end of a street, waving her hand patronizingly. She'd been keeping him on his toes for an hour, navigating the maze of the city like the back of her hand. It explained why no one had gone after this particular bounty despite it being located in the city. The woman was aggravating, taunting him and she enjoyed every minute of it.

It was a struggle to get through all of the people even when scaling the walls. It was impossible to predict when someone might lean out of a window with a rifle posed to shoot.

The woman was waving something in her hand, a huge grin on her face. The people around her avoided her like a disease. She wasn't running, waiting for him to catch up. Pulling something out of the object she threw it his way.

Madara cursed. He was too close.

The grenade exploded mid-air, shrapnel flying in every direction.

Using a random runner he shielded himself from most of the blast. Heat washed over, his arm and shoulder stung. He threw his human shield aside, hissing in pain.

The woman was long gone.

He ran a hand down his face, frustrated. His vision was blurry, white spots flashing across, vestiges of exhaustion hanging at the edge of his mind. There was no way he'll be able to keep up with the chase. He was low on chakra.

After a week without Sakura constantly healing him, the injection gun showed its faults. It was enough to keep him alive and make new vials, but not enough to use jutsu and barely enough to use chakra in general. He felt like a dried grape and his hair had been a permanent freak-show of black and white. It was ridiculous. Unfortunately, he had to admit that he had overestimated his capabilities. His chakra loss was way too fast for the injection gun to work and his regeneration wasn't strong enough to follow through. In a week or two he'll be utterly fucked.

Sakura had literally been his lifeline.

How pathetic.

A horde of people rushed down the street, trampling anyone who was in the way.

Madara kicked in a random door nearby and rushed inside. It seemed to be deserted, only a couple of abandoned appliances lying around.

The noise outside was piercing, it rattled through his skull. His headache was slowly turning into a migraine. These headaches were becoming more and more often, each one lasting longer than the previous one.

Blindly wandering through the place, he searched for a safe place to lay down. The shouting and screams from outside turned into a blaring horn in his head. He accidentally ran into a wall, the impact reverberating through his whole body. It disoriented him, he wasn't sure if he was vertical or horizontal anymore.

It was just him and the pain…

...and a voice?

It wasn't the first time he'd heard a voice or sometimes music during a migraine attack. This time the voice was a lot clearer.

Between the blinding light and pulsating pain, the voice was like a piercing screech, mumbling words, words that slowly started to make sense...

 _...The moon..._

Xxx

One moment she had been feeling like she was on top of the world and the next chaos had broken loose, someone had hit her accidentally on the head and the real world came crashing back down.

Disoriented she blinked at the various blurry people running around, screaming, shouting, enacting violence on each other. Gunshots echoed ominously.

She was laying on the ground. Her throat was parched and her head was pounding. Sitting up was like climbing a mountain, her hands shook uncontrollably. As soon as she laid her head against the wall the urge to vomit overtook her. She cleaned her mouth with her sleeve, the shouts around her just a buzz in the background.

Sakura chuckled drily. Like a hobo, she was sitting in a trash infested alleyway.

For the past few days, she'd been high as a kite on pills. Out of nowhere, Madara had ditched and for two days or so it had been bliss, until she felt like she was going to go insane, withdrawal hitting her like a brick. He wasn't around to berate her and guilt-trip her about her addiction. Searching and taking drugs had never been easier. All of her collected funds were gone and she didn't even feel remorse about it.

The outside was slowly bleeding into her view – people running and tripping over her legs. Her body was numb though, she barely felt a thing.

Her perception of time was skewed and she had no idea for how long the chaos lasted or for how long she had been laying in that alley. Only when the biting cold of the night reached her, she could move her limbs properly. With shaky legs she stood up, bleary blinking at the trash around her, some of it being bodies. Her tongue was like sandpaper in her mouth, sticking to the roof of her mouth.

She tried looking for her backpack but ultimately came up empty. Sometime while tripping balls she must have lost it or it might have gotten stolen. That stung a bit. Nevertheless, all she needed was herself and enough chakra to slay some robots, scavenge and exchange the parts for some sweet, sweet release.

If only she could see straight for a moment.

Sakura took a step and the world tilted. She braced against the brick wall, scraping her hands. When did she lose her gloves?

The metallic tang of blood reached her nose and she threw up again, dry heaving mostly.

She wandered on to the street when a familiar sense overtook her. Through her muddled thoughts she wasn't able to discern what it was she was feeling, but it was familiar enough that it was almost comforting. The drugs were wearing off and she was overcome with the urge to vomit again. She felt like crap and the urge to jump out of her skin was unbearable.

Somewhere along the way she managed to snatch a bottle of water off of a poor unaware sod. It tasted like heaven.

It was dark outside, the moonlight the only light source and people had mostly calmed down from the previous debacle that had happened. Sakura wasn't even sure if it was the same day.

She wandered around, following the familiar feeling. Until it led her to a building with no door.

Sketchy…

She stepped in the building. It was dark inside, she even walked into a chair, hitting her knee and it stunk of something putrid and rotting. Her senses were buzzing and she couldn't figure out why. Wandering further inside, she slowly realized what she was feeling. And then she tripped over something and landed painfully on the floor. Groaning she righted herself. Did she trip over a fucking skunk?

"Sakura?"

The voice was like a cut through her reality. She scrambled up, finally seeing that it wasn't a skunk before her, but a person. "Holy shit, Madara? The hell are you doing on the floor?"

He groaned, barely moving from his face down position. "Don't yell."

She shook herself to clear her head. It still was too dark to make out details and her vision was a bit blurry, but it indeed was him, laying on the floor like a murder case ready to be solved. "You look like something chewed you up and shat you out."

He didn't reply for a while, peeking at her through his bangs. "Speaking from experience?"

Sakura rolled her eyes, wiping her bangs away from her face. "Okay, point taken." She lately hadn't been in front of a mirror, but she sure as hell felt like shit.

Her head was spinning, making her nauseous again, so she laid down and her axis tilted for a moment, the whole room spinning. She closed her eyes, willing for the spinning to go away. They laid in the quiet for a few minutes, random muffled shouts from outside the only sound. "I'm sorry." She let the words hang before continuing, "I lashed out, you didn't deserve that. I was just angry, so, so angry."

Madara stayed quiet, unmoving.

She continued with a dry chuckle. "Gods, this is a mess. We're both such idiots." That earned her a grunt from him. "I'm an absolute mess and you look like you're about to croak." Her own words registered to her. She sat up, ignoring how the quick motion made her stomach lurch. "Oh shit! Please tell me that you're still alive."

"Just shut up already," came his muffled voice.

She sighed in relief and placed her hands on him. Her chakra control was a bit wavering and unfocused, but she was confident in her abilities. Surprisingly enough the damage wasn't all that bad, the hole was just large. What was more concerning was the migraine. Did he overuse his sharingan again? She jolted when he moved, the white washing out of his hair.

"I know how to get back."

"W-what?" She swallowed thickly. Was she hearing him right?

"You weren't supposed to be here, it was supposed to be my fate." He ran a hand down his face, exhaustion apparent.

She blinked. "Are you high?"

He spared a glance her way. "You're the one that's been high for days."

Sakura looked at the ground and her scraped hands. "I know. Just...how do you know this?"

"The moon told me."

She grabbed his arm and turned him towards her. "Okay, what the hell did you take?"

He deadpanned. "Kaguya, Sakura, I think it was Kaguya."

She returned his look. "You should've just led with that. Geez and I thought I was delirious."

He ignored her and cradled his head in his hands instead, eyes scrunched shut.

"Hey, hey." She removed his hands, inspecting his face. "Are you alright? Is the migraine still there?" Surprisingly enough he didn't push her away like she had expected. He didn't answer, so she just tried healing him again. Her thoughts were still frazzled and chakra unfocused, so she tried to do the bare minimum in fear of damaging anything lest she tries to go in deeper. The relief was visible on his face. She took a deep breath, laying her hands in her lap. "Listen, when we go back I could fix you, fix that chakra leak you have."

"Why don't you do it now?"

"It's not that simple I don't have the tools and I can't fix damage like that alone, I need assistance."

"Not interested."

She paused for a long while, looking for the correct words. "You realize that if I leave you will die here?" Even with the assistance of his little project she doubted he'd last, their week apart was evidence enough.

"I'm not an idiot, Sakura, I know what will happen."

"You really want to die again?" Her voice was quiet.

He suddenly snapped at her. "Do I have a fucking choice? I die either way."

She recoiled. "Why would you say that?"

He groaned, cradling his head again. "Do you really think they are going to let me live? After everything I've done? And even if I do get to live, they'll just imprison me and believe me I've had enough time sitting in four walls. I'd rather just die."

She frowned, reaching out to him, but at the last minute rethinking. "We could work som-"

He cut her off harshly. "No! Listen to me! Konoha won't want to help me. Don't be naive, the amount of damage I've done is too grave. The Hokage would be an idiot to let me walk free. You can't help me anymore." He turned away from her, running his hands through his hair in irritation.

Sakura bit her lip. It had never crossed her mind that that might be the case. All this time she had been so tunnelled in on her own needs that she hadn't even considered what would happen to Madara. It explained why he never wanted to go back. How could she be so selfish? Even if they didn't get along at first, they still had managed to work together and keep each other safe and she was pained to admit this, but she cared, she cared for him way too much. "For what it's worth, I kind of enjoyed our time together."

Madara sighed, smiling slightly. "I know, you're foolish like that."

She shook her head, grinning sadly. "You're not a horrible person, Madara. You-you're-" she couldn't find the words.

"I know, I'm worse."

She laughed and threw her arms around him in a hug. "Please, just...just let me have this." He was tense at first, but no soon after returned her hug for the first time and her heart melted.

"That soft heart is going to get you killed one day," he whispered in her hair.

She gently pulled on his hair, pouting. "Shut up and enjoy this." She tightened her hold around his middle, feeling the rumble of his short laugh. It felt nice and she almost didn't want to let go. This might just be the very last time she'd get to hug him. Pulling away, she cleared her throat. "So...about this way back you were talking about?"

His eyes wandered around the room for a while, settling on the window in the end. "From my understanding, it's very simple, almost stupidly so."

With her hands, she motioned for him to continue.

"All you have to do is look at the moon and think of home, Kaguya will do the rest."

"That's it?"

"Basically, yes."

"Are you sure you're not high?" She leaned closer to him, smiling.

With a dry look, he pushed her away. "Just try it. There's no harm in it."

Good naturedly she shook her head. It was asinine, all these years and all she had to do was just look at the moon and hope that Kaguya was gracious enough to send her back? There's no way it could be that simple. She didn't want to push it and make Madara use rinnegan techniques and kill him on the spot or spend more time wandering around the wasteland for a hope of something that could wrap time, yet this felt too good to be true. "Are you sure this will send me back home, like my time, Konoha and all?"

"I don't know, Sakura."

"How did you even get in contact with Kaguya?"

He sighed, tired. "She's been trying to talk to me ever since we split up, I think that's why my head was on the verge of exploding."

"Why now? It's been three years..."

"I don't know." She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. "And before you say it, again, no I'm not high."

She clamped her mouth shut sheepishly and fiddled with her fingers, chewing on her lip. "Well...you gotta understand from where I'm coming from… this literally sounds like something I was conjuring up in my brain a few hours ago." She gasped. "Wait, I might be in psychosis."

He flicked her on her forehead and she yelped. "Stop stalling and just do it already."

Sakura rubbed her forehead, mock glaring at him. She indeed was stalling, partly because she didn't believe him and because she didn't want to leave him. It wasn't right. She just couldn't leave him here to die. There must be a way. "How about I teach you some healing techniques-"

He curtly cut her off. "Sakura."

She pouted. "But, Madara, I can't just leave you like this. At least let me-"

"No. There's no point. I'll manage with what I have."

"Why do you have to be so difficult?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

Sakura groaned. "Fine, I'll do it, but just so you know I still think you're the one tripping balls here."

He shrugged and the lack of a verbal response disappointed her. She was trying to lighten the mood, stall some more, but she might have exhausted her chances already.

She hung her head and sighed. There wasn't going to be a good outcome to this, was there? She peeked at the moon that was shining through the window. Trusting Kaguya to send her back was making her queasy. She peeked back at Madara, who had gotten lost in thought, staring at the dirty floor. This was so cruel...so, so wrong. Could it all just be over like that? Years of torture in this dystopia, years of not knowing over only because a certain goddess decided that she had suffered enough?

Still, she got up from the floor with a grunt and trailed towards the window. Might as well get it over with, she doubted it was going to work anyway. As Madara instructed she looked at the moon and thought of her home, her friends, her little flat, everything she had been missing for these past three years.

Nothing seemed to happen and she broke her stare, shaking her head.

"I told you it won't work." She turned around to gloat at Madara, but he wasn't there anymore. She blinked a couple of times, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her palms. He still wasn't there.

Sakura raised her head and the skies were clear above her, canopies of trees filling her vision. She was in a forest, tall, thick trees all around her. It was dark, the moonlight shining through the canopies in streams of light. Night birds sang in the distance. She took a deep breath, the smell of the forest invading her nostrils.

How?

She pivoted on her heel, walked all around the small clearing, even ran her hands down the bark of some trees, it stung her hands. It all felt so real, so nostalgic. She peered back at the moon and frowned. Throwing both her middle fingers towards it, she trekked into the woods, tears streaming down her face.

Xxx

It had taken her days to reach Konoha. Part of her hadn't been sure if she actually was back home and she had been wandering around because of that. Another reason had been because she had been experiencing some serious withdrawals and couldn't move properly for some days.

She had broken down crying when the familiar walls of the village had reached her eyes. She really was back home and things had changed since she last had been there. It had felt different, the villagers had looked different. Only when she had met up with her very surprised and teary-eyed friends did she find out that the war had been over for three years, Kaguya was sealed back in the moon, Sasuke had left the village and her shisou had resigned from the position of Hokage, leaving Kakashi-sensei as her successor and that everyone had presumed her dead, a fatality of the war.

Her detox had been absolute hell, getting berated by Tsunade for even taking drugs had come to a close second. Tsunade hadn't been able to identify what the drug had she had been taking, only that it might have been an advanced version of a soldier pill.

It had been weird being back. Some days she had woken up in cold sweat, thinking that she was back in the wasteland. It had taken her months just to feel like she even belonged back in the village. She had missed everyone dearly, but talking to them, opening up about what had happened to her was like pulling teeth. It had just made her remember how she had essentially left Madara to die, die alone in a wasteland far from home. She should've been more incessant that he comes along, consequences be damned. At least then maybe she wouldn't have been plagued by guilt that she was a horrible person, horrible for leaving someone to die. It had been eating her up from the inside – the not knowing if he made it without her or his condition had finally gotten to him.

Some days she gazed at the moon, hatred swirling in her heart. She'll never be able to forgive Kaguya for the torture she put her through all for seemingly nothing, putting her there with Madara, getting her attached and then making her leave him. It was the definition of the word cruel.

She truly despised the moon.

* * *

 _Thank you guys for all of your feedback, I appreciate it a lot. I'm sorry if this ending seems unsatisfactory, it kind of was for me, but if I'm following my original plan this was the only way one of them wouldn't get killed on the spot or drag the plot out needlessly and frankly I did not want that. Another part of me didn't want to waste more time on this, I want to move on to other projects and speaking about other projects..._

 _I'm picking back up Forward Thinking sometime soon and it's going to have 12 chapters in total. I've edited the chapters already posted and the 3rd one has some important changes, nothing too major, just some clues and other plot stuff, so if you're interested you can read that._

 _Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this crazy story and a huge thanks to everyone who bothered to leave responses to me, they always make my day and sometimes even get me out of a rut. Love you darlings._

 _p.s. the franchise I was referencing all this time was Terminator, the AI (Skynet) the robots (various models of the terminators)._


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